Goodbye, and good luck with that! I thought, waving as I watched Elrand get carted off to who knew where.
《Looks like we’ll be fine leaving him to that old elf lady,》 Dora-chan commented. He was clearly relieved to see the dynamic that had developed between Elrand and his new keeper.
“Indeed. A relief, truly,” Gon agreed.
“Is the butchering of the leviathan not ready to begin yet?” asked Fel, who’d been sitting quietly off to the side, scowling.
“I guess not? I haven’t heard anything, anyway,” I replied. I’d have to take the corpse out of my Item Box before they could butcher it, needless to say, and nobody had asked me to do that yet.
《Sui wants to try the leviathan meat soon!》 Sui commented. Apparently, everyone was beside themselves with excitement.
“I’ll go ask the people from the capital’s guild about the schedule,” I said.
Checking with one of the people responsible for directing the flow of work seemed like the quickest and easiest way to get brought up to speed on the schedule. I was looking around for a likely candidate when suddenly, a voice rang out.
“Is that you, Mukohda? It’s been ages!”
“Wait—Rita?!” I exclaimed as I turned around. Rita, a member of the adventuring party Iron Will, was standing behind me with a smile on her face. She wasn’t alone either—a whole assortment of familiar figures who I hadn’t seen since we ran into each other in Dolan’s dungeon were gathered up alongside her. “All of you! It really has been forever!”
Werner, Ramon, Vincent, Rita, and Franka—Iron Will’s whole lineup—were present. I felt a smile spread across my face as well.
“Oh! Did the guild call you in to help?” I asked. I’d almost forgotten that they sent out a summons for high-ranking adventurers.
“That’s right,” Werner said with a nod. “We happened to already be in the capital, so we were actually the first party they asked.”
“We knew we had to lend a hand the second they mentioned your name,” Ramon added, flashing me a grin. That struck me as awfully nice of them.
“By the way, Mukohda, I see you’ve picked up another crazy familiar,” Werner added as he glanced behind me. Ramon, Vincent, Rita, and Franka all nodded in agreement.
I didn’t even need to ask to know they were talking about Gon. “Yeah, well, y’know. It kinda just happened,” I said.
“You’re the only person in the world who could ‘just happen’ to get an ancient dragon as a familiar. That’s incredible! Downright absurd, actually!” Vincent said. Once again, the other members of Iron Will nodded vigorously.
“I guess, but he joined up for the same reason Fel did,” I explained, doing my best to keep smiling. In the end, all it really means is that I’ve got one more extremely hungry mouth to feed.
“You mean he got lured in by your cooking?” Rita asked.
“Indeed. The food that my liege cooks is like nothing else, and is a reward worthy of my service.”
“Gah! It talked!” Rita yelped. Gon had jumped in to answer her question for me.
“Yeah, uhh, I guess I should introduce you! This is my party’s newest member, Old Man Gon,” I said. Iron Will’s members responded by breaking eye contact with me. Their shoulders were slightly quivering. What? No, seriously, what?
“Oh, gods, my sides,” Vincent muttered. “But anyway, didn’t Fel say something about how he picked a fight with an ancient dragon at one point? Don’t tell me Old Man Gon is the same one from that story?” he asked. I was a little surprised that he still remembered.
“Hardly,” Fel grunted. “He chose to provoke me. For the time being, however, we have agreed to a truce. We are allies, for now.”
“Indeed we are!” Gon agreed.
“Oooh?” Vincent said. He seemed weirdly excited by the news. “A fenrir and an ancient dragon, fighting together? Just imagine the possibilities! It’s the ultimate team up! I bet you’re unbeatable!”
《Okay, hold up a sec, pal! Don’t go forgetting that we’re on the team!》 Dora-chan chimed in.
《Hmmmph! Sui’s here too!》 Sui added as well.
The two of them leaped in front of Vincent, more or less shoving themselves in his face.
“Whoa!” Vincent yelped. “Oh, right! I almost forgot you had a tiny dragon and a slime working with you too.”
“I know Fel and Gon kinda overshadow everyone, but Dora-chan and Sui are plenty powerful in their own right,” I noted. Powerful enough to take down S-ranked monsters, anyway!
“And the two of them joined up with you for your food as well?” Rita asked.
“I mean, yeah,” I admitted.
“Well, if that’s what it takes to eat your cooking every day, I can’t exactly blame ’em! I’m actually jealous!” she said.
“Foolish girl,” Ramon angrily muttered. “We are no fledgling adventurers who live from hand to mouth!”
“He’s right, Rita,” Werner concurred. “When was the last time you went hungry? I bet you can’t even remember.”
“That’s got nothing to do with this! It’s not about being full, it’s about Mukohda’s food being better than anything else I’ve ever eaten!” Rita countered.
Vincent nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “I actually thought we’d run into you earlier, to be honest. We figured we’d see you in the capital’s guild hall eventually, but you never showed up at all,” he added with a slight pout.
“Yeah, that’s my bad. Sorry,” I replied. I’d had my reasons for staying as far away from the guild as possible. Well, one reason, really, that being my desire to not get involved with one particularly irritating individual as far as I could manage...though considering that he’d found me a few minutes ago, that plan had only carried me so far.
“Admit it—you were just hoping that you could convince him to cook for us,” Franka said as she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, lay off!” Vincent snapped. “I’m not the only one who had his hopes up! Remember how Rita was all ‘Oh, boy, we might get to eat his cooking again’ when we found out? She was literally drooling!”
“Was not! I’ve never drooled in my life!” Rita shouted.
“Hah! I know what I saw.”
“You didn’t see squat!”
As Vincent and Rita’s exchange devolved into a shouting match, Franka shook her head and sighed. “Honestly, you two,” she muttered.